Great Expectations
Oct. 12th, 2006 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI have now finished reading Great Expectations.
I know I have a tendency to read things slightly sideways, but... if there's any real love story in there, it is Herbert and Pip, not Pip and either of the girls he thinks he loves.
I mean, I know the author probably didn't mean it that way, because authors are frequently boring like that. And I know I'm a slash fan and therefore read everything like that. But.
From the moment they first meet they live together. They're the best of friends. They're never parted except geographically. Which... makes more sense in my head than in English. Er, I mean, while their position on the globe might change, their relation to each other does not. Always they care about each other. Always Herbert is first to help Pip, and Pip thinks of helping Herbert even when he's in the depths of his selfish prick phase.
So the book covers about 5 years of living together in London.
And then they move to Cairo and live together for 11 years.
By the end of the book they've been together very nearly half Pip's life.
And then that stupid tacked on ending wants us to believe that Estella is the love of his life? Not even.
I like the first written ending much better. Sees her just to say goodbye. Not a hint of getting together. Pip has a mini Pip, and a family back in the east, and all is good.
The way it is in the book where he just coincidentally turns up at the one moment Estella did... She's never been his destiny, or any good thing in his life at all. She's always been pure poison. How on earth is holding hands with her a happy ending?
But a good life with Herbert is the payoff to the good thing Pip did, and a solid friendship, and a good relationship. Granted, they did fight as soon as meet each other. And it was because of Estella (see, poison!). But as soon as they met to know names and get to know each other, they're best friends, and stay that way forever.
Pip going to marry Biddy would have been a disaster. Trying to live someone else's life again. And bloody annoying if it had happened, because it would put her on hold until convenient to Pip again. As it was, she had a life of her own, and Pip learned he were still being selfish and short sighted. At least, one can hope he learned.
Pip and Estella... Would only work if Estella had become a different person entirely. Since she married a bastard, and last we heard they were going to get in fights that he could only win by beating her, the only way she could turn out softer is if hitting a woman makes her heart start working. Since, if she'd won the battle of wills and there had been no hitting, she wouldn't have changed at all.
I have a *big* problem with an ending that might imply that.
Which, magic transformed nice!Estella rather does.
The other ending, that Dickens was persuaded to get rid of, had her marry the only man who stood up for her when she got hit, which makes perfect sense and implies no magical transformation at all. Depressing, sure, but as good an ending as could fit.
And neither woman is a payoff of any kind to what Pip has done with his life. There's no relationship there, and no earning, and not even any needing. Just poison on the one hand and outgrown clothes on the tother.
So, Herbert. Partner. Friend.
They don't have to be shagging for the living with him to be the proper ending.
But it helps.
Yes, I know there's also Clara. But really, the woman gets mentioned three times and is only on screen the once. I don't recall her getting any lines. If it were modern I'd refer to her as a "look! straight really!" device. Don't know enough context to figure back then.
But 16 years living together, even if 11 were as a threesome, is a much better relationship than any other Pip ever had. And the only one he did good things to earn.
I don't like the Estella ending at all.
... This probably isn't helping with the, like, essay type response thingies I'll have to do. At all. Those have to be all full of theory words.
Although, if I put the theory words in, I could talk about which codes lead me to this conclusion, and make a nice wordy essay out of it.
ANYways, here is not essays, and I can have Opinions.
Is possible this needs adding to some kind of "You know you're a slasher when" list.
"YKYASW you can't help but pick an OTP in your Intro Lit assigned reading"
*facepalm*
I know I have a tendency to read things slightly sideways, but... if there's any real love story in there, it is Herbert and Pip, not Pip and either of the girls he thinks he loves.
I mean, I know the author probably didn't mean it that way, because authors are frequently boring like that. And I know I'm a slash fan and therefore read everything like that. But.
From the moment they first meet they live together. They're the best of friends. They're never parted except geographically. Which... makes more sense in my head than in English. Er, I mean, while their position on the globe might change, their relation to each other does not. Always they care about each other. Always Herbert is first to help Pip, and Pip thinks of helping Herbert even when he's in the depths of his selfish prick phase.
So the book covers about 5 years of living together in London.
And then they move to Cairo and live together for 11 years.
By the end of the book they've been together very nearly half Pip's life.
And then that stupid tacked on ending wants us to believe that Estella is the love of his life? Not even.
I like the first written ending much better. Sees her just to say goodbye. Not a hint of getting together. Pip has a mini Pip, and a family back in the east, and all is good.
The way it is in the book where he just coincidentally turns up at the one moment Estella did... She's never been his destiny, or any good thing in his life at all. She's always been pure poison. How on earth is holding hands with her a happy ending?
But a good life with Herbert is the payoff to the good thing Pip did, and a solid friendship, and a good relationship. Granted, they did fight as soon as meet each other. And it was because of Estella (see, poison!). But as soon as they met to know names and get to know each other, they're best friends, and stay that way forever.
Pip going to marry Biddy would have been a disaster. Trying to live someone else's life again. And bloody annoying if it had happened, because it would put her on hold until convenient to Pip again. As it was, she had a life of her own, and Pip learned he were still being selfish and short sighted. At least, one can hope he learned.
Pip and Estella... Would only work if Estella had become a different person entirely. Since she married a bastard, and last we heard they were going to get in fights that he could only win by beating her, the only way she could turn out softer is if hitting a woman makes her heart start working. Since, if she'd won the battle of wills and there had been no hitting, she wouldn't have changed at all.
I have a *big* problem with an ending that might imply that.
Which, magic transformed nice!Estella rather does.
The other ending, that Dickens was persuaded to get rid of, had her marry the only man who stood up for her when she got hit, which makes perfect sense and implies no magical transformation at all. Depressing, sure, but as good an ending as could fit.
And neither woman is a payoff of any kind to what Pip has done with his life. There's no relationship there, and no earning, and not even any needing. Just poison on the one hand and outgrown clothes on the tother.
So, Herbert. Partner. Friend.
They don't have to be shagging for the living with him to be the proper ending.
But it helps.
Yes, I know there's also Clara. But really, the woman gets mentioned three times and is only on screen the once. I don't recall her getting any lines. If it were modern I'd refer to her as a "look! straight really!" device. Don't know enough context to figure back then.
But 16 years living together, even if 11 were as a threesome, is a much better relationship than any other Pip ever had. And the only one he did good things to earn.
I don't like the Estella ending at all.
... This probably isn't helping with the, like, essay type response thingies I'll have to do. At all. Those have to be all full of theory words.
Although, if I put the theory words in, I could talk about which codes lead me to this conclusion, and make a nice wordy essay out of it.
ANYways, here is not essays, and I can have Opinions.
Is possible this needs adding to some kind of "You know you're a slasher when" list.
"YKYASW you can't help but pick an OTP in your Intro Lit assigned reading"
*facepalm*